Problem

Content item URLs (paths/slugs) are often updated for various reasons, such as SEO improvements or content revisions reflecting external events. When a content item's URL path changes, the original URL currently becomes invalid and leads to a 404 page for anyone trying to access it. This leads to visitors using old bookmarks or links encountering 404 "Not Found" errors, which provides a poor user experience and can negatively impact SEO rankings.

Website owners have conveyed that they need a seamless way to ensure traffic to old URLs is automatically directed to the new location.

This is because currently, creating the necessary redirect involves a cumbersome, manual process outside the content editing workflow: the user must remember the change, note the old path, navigate to the Redirects App, and manually create the rule. This process is inefficient, prone to human error (forgetting to create the redirect or recording the wrong path), and adds significant overhead to routine content updates.

The core issue is the lack of an integrated mechanism to assist with or automate redirect creation when a URL path changes.

Solution

Our system will now detect when a content item's URL path is changed upon publish and will ask the user if they want to create a 301 permanent redirect from the old path to the new path.

Figma

https://www.figma.com/design/9tiAwQg179ezJH48diVdph/Redirects-App?node-id=60-48961&m=dev&t=X9cqEkZigmLQs57v-1